Parks for Profit is a lively contribution to a relatively neglected field of Canadian history. Beginning with the creation of Canada's first national park in Banff in 1885, the author provides a sympathetic story of the historical tension between conservation and profit which has marked Canada's national parks policy. She traces this motif from the era of Macdonald and Van Horne, through that of Mackenzie King to the initiatives of Trudeau and Chrétien, to the present day.

Canada's national parks have been consistently in jeopardy, whether from resource exploitation, commercialization, boundary erosion, federal-provincial jurisdictional conflict or budget cuts.
Yet, for more than a century, Canadian environmentalists, and certain politicians and civil servants, have continued to fight for, create, and maintain new parks—though frequently against great odds. Supported by meticulous documentation, this book chronicles the displacement by the automobile of the railroad from its dominance in the older parks, and it reveals the way the need for national highways influenced the financing and location of new parks. It also analyzes the conflicts between the railroad, mining, lumbering, hydro, and townsite interests, and those who worked to preserve the land in a more natural state. Native land claims too are proving to be an integral part of the contemporary park-making process.

The author's independent assessment of the striving for park creation over the last century, as well as her recommendations for the future, make Parks for Profit vital reading.